complete verse (John 8:17)

Following are a number of back-translations of John 8:17:

  • Uma: “‘In your own Book of Law it is written like this: ‘If there are at least two witnesses whose words are the same, their testimony may be believed.'” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “It is written in your law,’ said Isa, ‘if the witness of two people is the same, what they say is true.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “There is a writing in your law which says the testimony of two is reliable if it agrees.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “It is written (concessive particle) in your law that what two witnesses say is to-be-believed if what they testify is the same.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “It is written in your handed-down laws which says there, if the testimonies of two people are the same, they must be acknowledged as true.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “In the law you follow it is written that when two witnesses say the same thing it is necessary to believe what they say.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

formal pronoun: Jesus addressing religious leaders

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff. ), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

Here, Jesus is addressing religious leaders with the formal pronoun, showing respect. Compare that with the typical address with the informal pronoun of the religious leaders.

The only two exceptions to this are Luke 7:40/43 and 10:26 where Jesus uses the informal pronoun as a response to the sycophantic use of the formal pronoun by the religious leaders (see formal pronoun: religious leaders addressing Jesus).

In most Dutch translations, the same distinctions are made, with the exception of Luke 10:26 where Jesus is using the formal pronoun. In Afrikaans and Western Frisian the informal pronoun is used throughout.

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

law

The Greek, Hebrew, and Ge’ez that is translated in English as “Law” or “law” is translated in Mairasi as oro nasinggiei or “prohibited things” (source: Enggavoter 2004) and in Noongar with a capitalized form of the term for “words” (Warrinya) (source: Warda-Kwabba Luke-Ang).

In Yucateco the phrase that is used for “law” is “ordered-word” (for “commandment,” it is “spoken-word”) (source: Nida 1947, p. 198) and in Central Tarahumara it is “writing-command.” (Source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.)

In a 1922 translation into Chagatai, a precursor language of both Uzbek and Uighur, it is translated with the Arabic loan word shari’at (شريعت), originally meaning “(Islamic) law (Shari’a).” (Source: F. Erbay and F.N. Küçükballı in Acta Theologica 2025 45/2, p. 133ff. )

See also teaching / law (of God) (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on John 8:17

It is written in your Law may be translated “there are words in your laws which say” or “your Law contains these words.” What follows must then normally be given as direct discourse.

The pronoun your (New English Bible “your own”) is emphatic. Jesus is pictured as at once hostile to their law and superior to it.

In the Jewish context the two witnesses would normally be taken to be two witnesses other than the person actually concerned. However, in the following verse Jesus makes himself one of the witnesses on his own behalf. The Scripture passages referred to are Deuteronomy 17.6 and 19.15.

When two witnesses agree, what they say is true is literally “the testimony of two men is true”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch renders “If two witnesses agree in their testimony, the truth results.” Good News Translation restructuring transforms the noun-orientated structure “the testimony of two witnesses” to a verb phrase when two witnesses agree, which then requires the inclusion what they say.

The clause when two witnesses agree may be rendered as a condition, “if two witnesses agree” or “if two witnesses say the same thing” or “if the words of two witnesses match one another.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 8:17

8:17

Even in your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid: This clause indicates that Moses’ law required at least two witnesses to prove a charge (accusation). See Deuteronomy 19:15. One witness was not sufficient to prove that someone was guilty.

Even in your own Law it is written: In some languages it may be natural to make your own Law the subject of the clause. For example:

Your own law says that (New Century Version)
-or-
Your law requires (Contemporary English Version)

in your own Law: The phrase your own Law refers to the Jewish law, the law of Moses. The pronoun your is emphasized, and you may want to emphasize the word in your translation.

it is written: This phrase introduces a quotation from the Old Testament. It implies that the following statement has authority. All Jews agreed that what was written in Scripture had authority.

the testimony of two men is valid: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as valid is more literally “true,” as in 8:13b and 8:14a. This clause indicates that when two people agree about something in their testimony, it should be accepted. That means that people should believe that it is true and reliable. One witness was not sufficient. The testimony of one person might be true, but it was not accepted as legal proof. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

the witness of two people is reliable
-or-
if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
when two witnesses say the same thing, you must accept what they say (New Century Version)

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